I had a full day up at the farm to do some hiking. Much of my previous leg weakness was gone but I was unsure about being ready yet for climbing up a mountain. After much research, I came up with a plan. I'd hike the trail along Black Pond and Long Pond, two lovely and wild Adirondack Ponds in the Paul Smith's area off of Blue Mountain Road. That trail would eventually join the Jenkins Mountain trail, at which point I could either continue on to the summit or turn back. I parked, let the dogs out and signed the trail register:
The trail began along the edges of Black Pond and it was indeed beautiful:
We hiked through a coniferous forest, largely spruce, with glacial eskers rising up around the pond:
The main pond appeared to be ahead of us but it was all spectacular, an Adirondack gem with a level, easy trail. There were warblers singing overhead and I wished I had learned my bird songs better when I was in college. Warblers, of course, are small and stay mostly in the tree tops so I never actually saw any. The only bird vocalizations I recognized were Loons (on the lake), Blue Jays and Wood Thrushes:
Black Pond began to widen as we walked along the trail:
We passed by a lean-to. It was nice, but since camping was forbidden I wasn't quite sure of its purpose:
Black Pond in all its wild, Adirondack glory:
A fisherman in a canoe paddled quietly along the shoreline, moving farther away when we saw us approaching. He too, I suppose, was there for quiet solitude:
Fergus sniffed an old log as we made our way along the trail:
The trail occasionally took us back into the forest, but Black Pond was almost always in view:
This is land is managed by Paul Smiths College and it is wild and serene:
My formerly weak legs were feeling just fine and the dogs were having a grand time. I'll post more tomorrow:
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